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They don't deserve to reduce naked mole rats to their (admittedly unsightly) appearance.

Because the naked hot dogs on four legs have abilities that we humans can only dream of: They do not develop cancer, feel almost no pain, do not seem to age and can do without oxygen for minutes.

But the animal superheroes have a weak point, as researchers at the City University of New York have now discovered

Naked mole rats need CO2, just like we need air to breathe.

A normal concentration of carbon dioxide is already too much for the animals and they will have seizures.

Source: pa / blickwinkel / H / H.

Schmidbauer

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The rodents native to the semi-deserts of East Africa live in underground cave systems and are among the few eusocial mammals.

Up to 300 of them together form a colony, similar to, for example, the state-forming ants and bees.

Their ability to do without oxygen for a long time is a consequence of this way of life and at the same time has its price:

You are dependent on a high concentration of CO2.

When naked mole rats leave their underground structures and come to the warm surface of the earth, they breathe faster to cool off.

Hyperventilating lowers the amount of carbon dioxide in their blood, and they cramp.

As the neuroscientists and psychologists working with Dan McCloskey write in their study in the journal Current Biology, due to a genetic mutation, rodents lack an important switch in the brain that inhibits nerve activity and thus prevents seizures.

More precisely: The mutation affects the so-called KCC2 protein, which regulates the chloride balance.

This in turn calms the nerves.

But if it is missing, for example because of the genetic defect in the naked mole rat, the brain goes crazy and cramps occur.

Source: pa / Ina Fassbende / Ina Fassbender

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We also have the same gene mutation.

People can then have seizures caused by fever.

The genetic defect was also found in patients with epilepsy, schizophrenia and autism.

The researchers therefore propose to examine these as well with regard to their breathing patterns and the need for carbon dioxide.

"Detecting the genetic polymorphism KCC2 in naked mole rats was a surprise," said neuroscientist Martin Puskarjov from the University of Helsinki, who was also involved in the study, in a press release.

"Aside from a few humans, naked mole rats are the only mammals to date that have this variant."

Naked mole rats are therefore dependent on CO2 and thus a life densely packed in underground colonies.

While we panic when there is a lack of oxygen and too high a concentration of carbon dioxide, the rodents get scared when they have to get out of their burrows and into the fresh air.

This article was first published in May 2020.